this one ish what i read in xin ming
i think they just translate from The New Paper
By Zul Othman, The New Paper, 21 May 2011
Nicole Seah is back onlnie – this time to appeal for donations to help defray the costs and expenses incurred by the National Solidarity Party’s (NSP) Marine Parade GRC General Election campaign.
But her plea has raised eyebrows among some netizens. On a Facebook page, she stated that the donated funds will go directly into a bank accout in her name.
While the online plea has garnered its share of supporters with more than 500 ‘likes’ on her post, some netizens are unsure about the use of a personal bank account, and there is an ongoing debate within the comments thread about the legality of using her own account.
Marnie Parade resident William Lee, 29, for example, said while he did not mind donatnig to help NSP, the decision to channel the funds into Miss Seah’s account did not seem ‘wise’.
He said: “The money should go directly into an account in the name of the party for the sake of transparency.”
Political Donations Act
Miss Seah seemed mindful of such concerns.
On her original post on Tuesday, she had made an appeal on social networking site Facebook and several other online forums asking for contributions to help the team pay off its campaign bills.
Miss Seah wrote: “Based on the invoices at hand to date, the Marine Parade Campaign expenses are well over $35,000 and will be borned by my team-mates and I personally, as candidates.”
“I am legally allowed to ask for contributions from fellow Singaporeans. Hence, do consider if you could help.”
She later clarified via a Facebook post that the account was “set up solely for the purpose of ensuring that the funds are clearly obtained.”
Under the Political Donations Act, candidates are told to take note: “You should retain donations received in a separate bank account pending verification of the donor’s status.”
The Act also says donations can only be received from Singapore citizens above 21 years old and/or companies that are incorporated in Singapore and which carry on business mainly in Singapore and controlled by Singaporeans.
In her Tuesday post, Miss Seah also clarified that the account will be shut down after the team hits its $35,000 target and excess donations will go towards offsetting funds needed for Ms Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss’ Mountbatten campaign.
“I will be able to publish the bank statement in full as a show of transparency once this is over,” Miss Seah noted.
According to Miss Seah’s Facebook post, all donations collected will pay for, among other things, the production of fliers, posters, banners, election booklets as well as the hiring of barricades, spotlights and sound system for the Aljunied open field rally on April 28.
It is not known how much has been collected so far as Miss Seah did not respond to calls made by TNP at press time.
Nothing new
Opposition members going public to source for the money is nothing new, said Mr PN Balji, director of the Asian Journalism Fellowship at Nanyang Technological University.
But they are also increasingly turning to the Internet to garner support and donations.
“This again arouses interest and sympathy for the opposition members…It also shows that they are underdogs. For one thing, you will never see a PAP candidate doing this to get donations,” he said.
Mr Balji said that concerns about the money being used properly are only natural. He said:”You have to be above board. I’m not saying Nicole Seah will take the money but in politics you must do it the proper way.”One suggestion he had was to collect the donations in the name of the party to avoid any accusations of mismanagement.
Political observer and former Nominated Member of Parliament Zulkifli Baharudin noted: “The process of organizing (political events) is not as straightforward and this episode shows that (parties) are not savvy as to how they organize themselves politically.”
When contacted yesterday, the party’s secretary-general Goh Meng Seng admitted that the move had ‘mixed reactions’.
He told TNP: “Personally I would refrain from using the Internet to raise funds but nobody in the party has raised any concerns.”
But Mr Goh defended the move, noting that it was ultimately “public engagement using the new media.”